RIP Mr. Merlin Baba Lou

We had to make a very difficult choice this New Year's Eve to put Mama's sweet, beloved kitty Merlin to sleep. He was very sick, but he will always be remembered very dearly in our hearts.

He was a very loving and gentle kitty. I feel blessed to have had him for my fur baby.

RIP

Mr. Merlin Baba Lou

2004-2012

A Milestone!

I am planning to do a Christmas post very soon, but for today I just wanted to share that yesterday (Dec. 28th) little Forest reached a new milestone! He is now crawling. He just wants to be able to keep up with that big sister! Here are a few snapshots from the moment he discovered he can go forward.

'Tis the Season

Why, for baking and creating, of course! 

Here are some photos of today's adventures ::

Homemade cupcakes with chocolate frosting. 

 Sienna's paper craft wreath.

Forest and Sienna (behind) crafting and creating at our dining table.

Who's My Pretty Baby?

On Saturday, we took our pretty, little babies to see Elizabeth Mitchell in concert. It was Forest's very first concert and Sienna's second time seeing Elizabeth Mitchell. Forest loved listening to the music and Sienna loved climbing and dancing around our bench.

Elizabeth Mitchell sang one of Mama's favorites, "Who's My Pretty Baby" written by Woody Guthrie and Sienna's favorite, "John the Rabbit." I wonder which song will be Forest's favorite?

Forest & Mama 

Our pretty baby. 

 Sienna giving Forest some "loves"

 Sienna & Daddy

Elizabeth Mitchell 

A pretty stained glass window at the Town Hall in Seattle. 

(Photo credits to Sienna!) 

Daddy & Forest

(Photo credits to Sienna!)

Also, we guessed right! Forest weighed 16 lbs. 5 oz. at his well baby check-up.

On All Hallow's Eve

This year on All Hallow's Eve, we had a sweet little boy pumpkin and an adorable little Minnie Mouse. It was a very rainy night, so we decided to stay in our cozy apartment and pretend trick-or-treat with the girl. She went around and knocked on the doors and we gave her candy. Then, she got to choose one piece of candy to eat and she gave the rest of her candy to the "Candy Fairy" who came in the middle of the night and left her a special tiny note (because fairies are so very tiny) and a magical rock for her to find in the morning. 

We also gave out candy, too! There were just five little ones that braved the rain to go trick-or-treating. Sienna loved helping Daddy give them candy.

The sweet little pumpkin boy. 

Best Friends 

Little Miss Minnie Mouse

On the Saturday before Halloween, we took Sienna to her very first Halloween Party at her dance school. She had fun doing some art projects, eating sweets, and participating in a cake walk to raise money for the older dancers to attend a dance class at Disneyland this summer. She even won our little family a chocolate cake! 

Waiting to start the cake walk.

On Sunday, we carved our pumpkins together. Sienna told Mama what kind of face to carve on her pumpkin. She wanted triangle eyes, a circle nose and a happy smile.

 In order: Daddy's monster pumpkin, Sienna's happy pumpkin, Forest's heart pumpkin, Mama's star & moon pumpkin

We also snapped this photo of our seasonal homeschool art wall before we took down all of the projects. We will be starting our Thanksgiving projects next! 

Some of the art projects that we made together. Some of the projects were also made by Sienna when she went to preschool.

And, today is election day and Forest is also 4 months old today! I will be posting his stats  tomorrow, but I am guessing he is in the 16 or 17 lbs. range now. 

Blueberry Bliss

Remember these??

Well, we ended up freezing most of our berries from our summer blueberry picking adventure. Yesterday, Sienna and I decided to bake some yummy blueberry muffins. We have been baking/cooking something each day together. She loves helping her Mama make food for our little family.  

It was the first time I baked blueberry muffins from scratch. I even made a crumb topping for them! They were quite easy and fun to make.

Sienna also painted this picture of a pumpkin to add to our seasonal craft wall. 

(Photos to come!)

And Forest is now mobile ... sort of. Yesterday, he started rolling (from tummy to back to tummy, etc.) to get around the room. Sienna was also a roller and not much of a crawler. We'll have to wait and see what Forest's preference will be!

Hello, Autumn!

Well, hello to you and hello to a new season!

Since the first day of Autumn, we've been quite busy packing, moving and now unpacking in our new home. This weekend we had a chance to slow down a bit and visit a few farms on the Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms. Our favorite definitely has to be Gordon Skagit Farms. This is the third year we've visited this farm and we will definitely keep going back. The farm displays are so beautiful, as you can see in the photos from our day. 

A perfect pumpkin.

And our perfect pumpkin' girl.

"The last fruit of summer becomes a lantern to guide us."

Flowers and Honey

The farm girl

Squash

Just one of the pumpkins ...

 sitting on a farm truck.

Sienna and Nana

 Silly girl with her Daddy

Mama really loved this little shed with the brooms.

A view of the farm displays.

In the spooky haunted barn, there were three displays with skeletons. Above the displays were these three signs ...

... very spooky! 

John Deer and pumpkins 

Our loot from the farm!

We love farm fun!